Burntwood School

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris won the RIBA Stirling Prize with a very sculptural building developed closely with an artist to use large, colourful murals throughout the buildings – cleverly combining signposting with modern art.

The transformation of Burntwood School pieces together a 1950’s modernist education campus for 2000 pupils and 200 staff in south-west London.

Within an existing mature landscape, six new buildings-as-pavilions develop the heritage of the existing, orchestrating a system of bespoke constructional components to bring both efficiency and delight.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Burntwood School, London. Photo © Timothy Soar — Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Burntwood School, London. **Top**:Photo © Rob Parrish. **Above**: Photo © Timothy Soar

The new buildings – four 4-storey teaching pavilions, a new sports hall and a new performing arts building – are placed amongst a number of retained buildings (including two by Sir Leslie Martin) to form a complete and coherent campus, with lawns, squares and a central pedestrian spine.

Within each pavilion, classrooms and ancillary accommodation are arranged along a central corridor with voids and double-height spaces at each end to increase natural daylight and make connections to the exterior. The regularity of each plan is followed through to the elevation with faceted precast concrete panels that correspond to a 7.5 metre structural and classroom module; a development of the prefabricated facade work seen at Dagenham Park Church of England School.